Edge of Anarchy_A Thriller, Action, Mystery Novel

by David Archer

  “Revenge,” Marco said. “What about people who might have some connection to any previous targets? I mean, we’ve taken out quite a few people around the world, and not even a small number right here in the good old U.S. of A. It’s always possible we stepped on somebody’s toes, somebody who had enough connections to worm their way into the outfit.”

  “That’s an interesting premise, Marco,” Donald Jefferson interjected, “and one that I think should be explored thoroughly. Unfortunately, the only person who comes to mind at the moment would be Ralph Morgan. You killed his father, and took away the multimillion dollar operation he expected to inherit. It’s quite possible he holds a grudge about that.”

  “I would doubt that,” said Noah. “Ralph actually tried to hire me to kill his dad for him, and the last time I spoke to him, he thanked me for bringing him into E & E. I suspect he finds the life of an international assassin far more rewarding than just running a regional organized crime operation.”

  “I’m going to go with Noah on this,” Allison said, “because Ralph has done exceptionally well in training. His instructors all seem to consider him an absolute natural, and everything I’ve heard says that he’s all in and gung ho.”

  “We can still look at him,” Jefferson said. “Just to be on the safe side. Molly, you can explore the revenge motive angle probably better than anyone else. Tweak your algorithms and see what you can find out.”

  Molly nodded and smiled. “Yes, sir,” he said. “I’ll be on that as soon as we’re finished up here.”

  “Now,” Allison said. “What about the mission, Noah? Is there any kind of game plan worked out yet?”

  “I’m afraid not,” Noah said. “The big problem is that we have no way of communicating with Jenny or Neil. Originally, I had planned on the whole team going along to these meetings, so that the rest of us could stake out the targets and hopefully terminate them. Under these circumstances, however, there was no way to do that. I’m hoping that you can keep track of where they go, and that Wally can help me find some way to get in touch with them.”

  “I certainly hope he can,” Allison said. “I’ll be honest and tell you that I thoroughly dislike the situation they’re in. I know it was necessary, but it always worries me when some of our people are completely out of touch, without any kind of backup.”

  “Yes, I agree,” Noah said. “Jenny is capable, but until Newsom and his cronies are satisfied, they’re basically prisoners. Neil is going to be under security guard at all times, and I’m sure Newsom is going to have people accompanying him and Jenny into each of the meetings. If at any point they become suspicious, we could lose them.”

  Allison looked him in the eye. “If that were to happen,” she said, “I will authorize you to track down every single person involved in the PRA. I want all of their heads if anything happens to Jenny and Neil.”

  “Join the club,” Sarah said.

  Allison dismissed them and they headed towards R&D. Wally was delighted to see them when they arrived, and took them into his private office so that they could talk without being overheard.

  “I wasn’t expecting you guys back so soon,” Wally said. “I’ll bet everything went off okay.”

  “The mission isn’t over yet,” Noah said. “In fact, we had to split up. Jenny and Neil are in deep cover, going with one of our targets to meet his superiors. If everything goes according to plan, they should be able to identify them by the time they get back, but for the time being, we are completely out of touch with them. They aren’t allowed any kind of electronic communications devices at all, not even so much as a way to send email. I’m hoping you might be able to come up with some way we can make contact.”

  Wally leaned back in his chair and tapped his chin. “Oh, my goodness,” he said. “I really don’t know. We can go talk with Leo, he’s our current resident wizard of communications technology. If anybody can think of something, it will probably be him. Come on, let’s go.”

  He got out of his chair and headed out the door, leaving Noah, Marco and Sarah to follow. They were able to catch up with him only a moment later, and followed him through the labyrinth of hallways that led back to the Clandestine Communications Lab.

  Wally swiped his ID card to open the door, and then he held it open for the rest to follow. As soon as they were all inside, he turned around and motioned for Leo to come close.

  “Leo, you remember Marco and Noah and Sarah? They’ve come to us with a problem, and I’m hoping you can come up with a solution. Jenny and Neil, the other two members of their team, are in a situation that leaves them incommunicado. It just so happens to be a bad situation, so we’re wondering if there’s any way you can come up with to send them a way to get back in touch with Noah and the team.”

  Leo grinned. “Actually, there might be a way. You all have the subcom units. We’ve been experimenting with some upgrades, and Judy over there had a brainstorm that was absolutely fantastic. See, we’ve been piggybacking the signal on the same frequency used by most Wi-Fi routers, 2.4 gigahertz. Because of a couple of breakthroughs we made, using quantum states that actually make no sense to anybody at all, we’ve been able to let the units communicate over pretty long range. Well, Judy got to looking at our configuration and discovered that with a simple software patch, we can actually use any available Wi-Fi to extend that range to almost infinite. As long as both the sender and receiver are connected to the Internet through Wi-Fi, all of the units on a particular channel will be able to pick up and decrypt the signal.”

  “Are you saying there’s a way for them to talk to us through Wi-Fi?” Noah asked.

  “Yes, but not until their units have the software upgrade. And unfortunately, the upgrade has to be initiated from each unit. In other words, we have to get word to them somehow to go ahead and start the upgrade.”

  “What about the units that we have right now?” Noah asked. “Can they be upgraded right away?”

  “Oh, yes,” Leo said. “Now, the Wi-Fi here is highly restricted, so you’ll have to wait until you get into another Wi-Fi network. When you do, just say ‘activate software upgrade,’ and it will prompt you for the Wi-Fi password. Just speak it aloud, and it will log on and then query our server for the upgrade. Once the upgrade finishes, it will restart itself and then you can communicate with all of the units on your network through Wi-Fi, no matter where they are. As long as they are in range of a Wi-Fi router, the message will go through, and you’ll receive any replies.”

  “That’ll be a big help. Now, all we have to do is figure out how to let them know to get the upgrade. I don’t suppose you built in a way to track their GPS locations, did you?”

  Leo stared at him for a moment, then turned toward Judy. The two of them had a silent conversation, and then he turned back to Noah. “Again, it would only be able to report the GPS location over a Wi-Fi network, but we can write software that will allow it to receive GPS signals, and thereby determine its GPS location. Judy is getting started on that right now, and it should be ready to go within an hour. It will be included in the update you get. All you would need to do is identify the unit you want to locate, and each unit is identified by the name of the person who has it. If you wanted to know where Marco was at, for instance, you would say to your unit ‘location Marco,’ and your unit would query his storage GPS coordinates and report them to you a moment later, provided he is in a Wi-Fi network somewhere.”

  “But only after Marco gets the upgrade, right? There’s no way to find out where our other teammates are at this time?”

  “No, I’m afraid not,” Leo said. “Not until you can get word to them to get the upgrade.”

  Noah turned to Wally. “I think this is going to help a lot,” he said. “Pretty well solves my problem, as long as I can get close enough to let them know to get the upgrade, and I think I know how to do that.”

  “Hey, just glad we can help,” Wally said. “You guys are my favorite team, you know that, right?”

  Noah rea
ched out and shook his hand. “And that means a lot to us, Wally.”

  The three of them left R&D and went to Charlie’s to get some lunch. Marco had stopped by Renée’s office, and she was able to take her break and go with them.

  “There’s something I want to talk to you about,” Marco said to Renée, once the waitress had taken their orders and walked away. “I already brought this up to Noah and he’s okay with it, but—how would you feel about joining the team? Actually going out on missions with us?”

  Renée’s eyes went wide, and she looked from Marco to Sarah to Noah and back to Marco. “Are you serious?”

  “I am if you like the idea,” Marco said. “Otherwise, it’s all a big joke and we can laugh now.”

  Renée swallowed. “You know, I’ve known all along what we do,” she said. “E & E, I mean, the organization. I know what it’s all about. I just never thought about actually being out there where the action is taking place. What would I do? I mean, where would I fit into the team?”

  “You’re extremely intelligent,” Noah said, “and we’d keep you in touch with everyone in R&D. It’s quite possible that you could be useful to us in planning and developing strategy, especially with inside knowledge of what R&D is up to. You came to our rescue when we had to deal with faking Randy’s death, because you knew a lot of what was going on out there. I think you can be very helpful when it comes to planning operations, and especially when we have to improvise in the middle of the mission.”

  She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, then looked at Noah in the eye. “Would I—would I ever have to actually kill someone?”

  “You’d have to be trained to use at least some weapons, and you have to receive some basic training in self-defense. I can’t guarantee that you’d never have to kill, but most of the time that’s up to me and Marco and Jenny.”

  Renée nodded. She turned and looked at Marco. “And I’d always be going out with you?” he asked.

  “If the Dragon Lady approves it,” Marco said, “then you’d be part of Team Camelot. You would go out with us whenever we were sent out on a mission.”

  “I want to say yes,” she said, “but I really think I need to think about this. Can I have a couple days?”

  “You can have as much time as you want,” Marco said. “I just know that I’d like to have you with me a lot more, and this would mean I could stop worrying about what I say when I’m with you. You would already know about our missions, so there wouldn’t be any secrets between us.”

  Renée reached across the table and put her hand on his. “Never mind,” she said. “I don’t have to think about it. How soon will we know if we can do it?”

  Marco smiled from ear to ear. “I’ll go see Allison right after lunch,” he said. “Hey, the worst she can say is no, right?”

  FIFTEEN

  “Are you out of your mind?” Allison asked. Renée had gone back to work, but Noah and Sarah decided to go with Marco. In fact, Noah had been the one to call and ask if they could speak with her. Her response was exactly what Noah had expected, but he had already worked out his response.

  “I don’t think so,” he said. “I’ve actually given this quite a bit of thought, since Marco first brought it up. Renée is quite intelligent, and very resourceful. She was instrumental in helping us handle the situation when we were hunting the mole, and if we keep her in touch with R&D, she should be able to think in terms of what advantages the new developments out there might offer. I think she’s entirely capable of doing whatever needs to be done, and would only need some basic training.”

  Allison looked at him. “I can understand Marco coming up with this madness,” she said, “but you actually sound like you approve. You know damn well he just wants to be able to take his girlfriend along, the same way you and Neil get to do. I can’t approve this simply on personal motivations, Noah.”

  “I’m aware of his motivations,” Noah said. “Mine, however, are the good of the team. Renée could be an asset, and I believe it would be worth whatever nuisances might come from it.”

  Allison glared. “You know, if that was anybody but you saying that, I’d think you were just trying to curry favor with one of your teammates.” She shook her head. “But you aren’t capable of thinking that way. Fine, I’ll approve the transfer, but she has to go through the primary training before she’s authorized to go on mission. I’ll send word out to Wally today, and she can start tomorrow.” She crossed her hands on her desk. “Now, where are we on Jenny and Neil?”

  “Wally’s people came up with a way to make these subcom units work through Wi-Fi,” Noah said. “The only problem is that they require a software upgrade, and the only way we can get word to them to get the upgrade is by getting close enough for the subcom units to work the way they normally do. Do we know where they are at the moment?”

  “Last report I had said they were still in Germany, but that was a couple of hours ago. It would be nice if we had some idea of where they’re going.”

  “Yes, but we don’t have that. I’d like to put a Gulfstream on standby, so that as soon as we know where they are next, we can get there. My idea is to be on the ground in the plane when they leave their next stop, so that we can hopefully make contact with them and tell them to get the upgrade. Once they get that, anytime they get into a Wi-Fi network, they should be able to communicate with us directly.”

  “I read the report on those things,” Allison said, “but I never really thought about just how useful they could be. It’s almost like having a phone built in your head, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, and especially if it can transmit through the Internet. I’m not sure how they set it up, but Wally’s people say we should be able to talk to them anywhere in the world once they have the upgrade in place.”

  Allison nodded. “Then you guys go get some rest, and I’ll make sure the plane is waiting. As soon as we have a destination, you’ll be notified.”

  “Thank you,” Noah said, and the three of them got up and walked out of her office.

  Marco was almost bouncing with excitement. “Can I tell her? Can I call her now and tell her?”

  “Go ahead,” Noah said. He looked at Sarah. “I think he’ll go crazy if I don’t let him do it now.”

  She giggled. “No doubt,” she said.

  Marco waited until they were in the garage before he called Renée, but the call went to voicemail. “Hey, babe,” he said. “Just thought I’d let you know, we talked to Allison and she has okayed your transfer. Wally should be letting you know before long, but I wanted to give you a heads up. You have to go through the general training, but you should be ready by the time you go out on our next mission.”

  He ended the call and put the phone back in his pocket, then climbed into the car with Noah and Sarah.

  An hour later, when Marco had gone home to rest, Noah called and reminded him to download the updated software for the subcoms, while he and Sarah did it themselves. Moments later, Noah said “Activate software upgrade.”

  In his head, he heard, “enter Wi-Fi password,” and spoke it aloud. A second later, he heard, “Upgrade complete.”

  “Marco to Noah,” he heard a moment later, and Sarah grinned at the same time. “Can you hear me now?”

  “Noah to Marco,” Noah said. “Loud and clear.”

  * * * * *

  After their lunch with Niemeier, Jenny and Neil had been taken back to the hotel. Newsom told them they would be leaving the following morning, and to stay in their room until he came to get them for dinner. The two of them took advantage of having the afternoon alone, spending some time in personal intimacy and then relaxing on the bed to watch television.

  Dinner was at a restaurant just down the street, and the conversation was mundane. When it was over, Newsom suggested they get some sleep because they were flying out early. He would be coming to collect them at 4 o’clock in the morning.

  They were both up, dressed and packed by the time Newsom knocked on the door. “Oh, good,�
�� he said. “That means we can get moving quicker. We’ll have breakfast on the plane, I’m sure, and I’m afraid this will be a bit longer flight than yesterday.”

  “And you still won’t tell me where we’re going?” Jenny asked.

  “I suppose I can,” Newsom said. “We’ll be making our next stop in Brazil.”

  Forty-five minutes later, they were in the plane and in the air.

  * * * * *

  At just before 9 PM, Noah’s phone rang. He picked it up from the table beside the couch and saw that it was Allison calling.

  “Camelot,” he said.

  “They just left Schoenefeld Airport in Berlin, and CIA reports that the plane’s flight plan takes it to Rio de Janeiro. If you leave right now, you can probably land in Rio shortly before they do. The plane is sitting at the airfield ready to go.”

  “We’re moving,” Noah said. He hung up the phone and immediately said, “Noah to Marco, are you there?”

  “Boss?” Marco asked through the subcom. “Something up?”

  “Yes,” Noah said. “Drop whatever you’re doing and get to the airfield. Jenny and Neil are on the way to Rio, and we should be able to get there ahead of them. I hope you’ve got a bag packed.”

  “Always got one ready, boss,” Marco said. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

  Noah looked at Sarah.

  “We’re leaving now?” she asked.

  “Yes. Get the car started while I get our bags.”

  They arrived at the airfield at the same time Marco did, and the plane was in the air less than fifteen minutes later. Their flight plan to Rio was as direct as the pilot could make it, and with the throttles all the way forward, they would make it in slightly less than twelve hours. That would put them at Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport in Rio a good half-hour before Neil and Jenny would arrive.